Mafia mobsters are more sensitive, family-centred and less selfish than other criminals
Study finds convicted mobsters compartmentalise their feelings to separate mob business with positive feelings towards their loved ones
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
Members of the Mafia are more sensitive, family orientated and less selfish than other murderers, research looking into incarcerated Sicilian mobsters has found.
Members of the Mafia also appeared to have lower psychopathic traits than other criminals, a study lead by Italian researcher Professor Adriano Schimmenti concluded.
The research involved 30 inmates who were psychologically assessed using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R) which measures psychotic characteristics.
Seven of the Mafia members had been convicted of murder, 17 for violent crimes and the remainder for crimes such as drug trafficking, sexual exploitation and kidnapping, according to Discovery Magazine.
Those who received a score of 30 or above are considered a psychopath. None of the Mafia members scored over 30 in the researchers' test.
Instead, they expressed more concern for their family than the group of 39 non-Mafia prisoners convicted of non-gang related crimes, and never ceased to write or call them.
Furthermore, Prof Schimmenti found them to be less 'manipulative', ‘Machiavellian’, ‘narcissistic’, ‘unemotional’, ‘parasitic’ and/or ‘impulsive’ and less likely to have a substance abuse problem than the control group.
Prof Schimmenti explained this by suggesting the Mafia compartmentalised their lives and behaviours to split Mafia affairs from positive feelings towards their loved ones.
The authors did note the research only involved low ranking mafiosi, because access to higher ranking members is banned in Italy.
The team concluded: “Our findings bring new hope for resocialisation of convicted Mafia members, because they showed significant antisocial traits but they maintained a capacity for emotional connection and greater likelihood of engaging with training and resocialisation programmes than other imprisoned offenders in Italy.”
The study Mafia and Psychopathy was published in the journal Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments